No one can be a lawyer or doctor without credentials; anyone who likes can open a school, and command scholars too. Why should not the State interfere here?--it is very fond of interfering dreadfully on far less important matters--and say boldly that no one shall have a school at all until he has qualified himself in the eye of the State, and is diplomaed or hall-marked in such a manner that one can tell at once whether he is fitted for the work or not? Until this is done I much fear that preparatory schools will not improve to any great extent, and that the middle classes will continue to send their children to people who are utterly unfit for the work they have undertaken. A personal reference from some parent, often enough from one who knows little indeed about his children, and possibly a few letters after the name, are considered quite sufficient guarantee by most people that they are obtaining all that they are paying for. A good preparatory school costs from 85_l._ to about 125_l._ a year; of course less can be paid, and I dare say more can be paid also, but I consider an excellent school can be had for 100_l._ a year. Of course there are always extras beside, and these depend entirely on the means of the parents, and in some measure on the schoolmaster himself, who should undoubtedly be a man in whom we can trust, and to whom we can give our confidence, telling him exactly what we can afford to spend, and also what manner of child our special boy is, and also, most important of all, what he is to be, and what particular talents, weaknesses, or goodnesses he may be likely to inherit. We should also give our child our confidence. We should tell him emphatically what we can afford for him, what we wish him to do, and finally encourage him in every way to get on by writing to or seeing him constantly, and by never letting him imagine for one moment that ‘out of sight means out of mind;’ he is more in our minds, just because he is absent from us, than he would be were he constantly in our presence. As regards public schools, Harrow costs roughly about 200_l._ a year, and the first term’s bills are as follows: £ _s._ _d._ Board and washing 30 0 0 Public tuition and school charges 11 11 0 Entrance to school and house 16 0 0 Private tuition 5 0 0 ------------ 62 11 0 Of course the 16_l._ entrance fees do not come in again, but this is more than spent on extras. There are subscriptions to endless things and payments for extra tuition, for which a long list of printed names on the first account in some measure prepares the unhappy parent, who somehow never is prepared, for the extraordinary amount of new clothes, mending, hair-cutting, and other trifles, which go to sum up the accounts in the ensuing terms.